Best Reporting on "Coffee Party" Goes to...Palm Beach Post?!?

Seriously, while CNN and the NYTimes have studiously been avoiding the astroturfed origins of the "Coffee Party", reporter George Bennett has been laying it all out in south Florida paper the Palm Beach Post.

Now, you don't get credit for doing the right thing. But I give George a heckuva pat on the back for his follow-up reporting from the Coffee Party event this afternoon. As my twitter-pal @OneFineJay says, it truly deserves a "Not on the Onion" label for its humor, irony, and overall tone. I give it a B-plus.

This is not an auspicious beginning to a political movement:

Venting about the conservative tea party movement and talking — at times heatedly — about the need for civility in public discourse marked the debut meeting of a local "coffee party" group today.

"Frankly, we are petrified by the tea party and what they stand for and what they're talking about," said Monte Carmel, a retired business executive from West Palm Beach.

"I'm tired of all the misinformation, the cute little labels the fright-wing has thrown on everything," said a man named Russ.

"We have to stop the mantra of no taxes, no taxes, no taxes," said Marcia Halpern of Palm Beach Gardens.

Brownstein, who is white, said "white southerners in this country are going nuts" because of the popularity of black figures like President Obama and Oprah Winfrey. He said he raised the issue because "you have to know who your enemy is."

[...]

Mary Castronuovo of Palm Beach Gardens said she doesn't want the coffee party to be defined by its criticism of the tea party.

"I would be discouraged if this group became just a counter to the tea party," she said. "We can't make them the enemy."

Don't worry, sister. There's already a group counter to the Tea Party: Democrats.

Via Allah.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 08:04 PM

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